Date of Award

2012

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

PHD - Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Expressive Therapies

Abstract

With the advent of globalization, Korea has undergone a transformation and has a more multicultural population than ever before. Most multicultural families consist of a Korean male and a foreign female. These families experience difficulties such as social isolation, and children of these families experience difficulty in school as Korean society has not kept pace with the changing demographics of the country. The purpose of this study was to investigate art therapy for multicultural families in Korea to address the difficulties these families experience. To achieve this goal, surveys were used with married migrant women (n = 28), therapists working with multicultural families (n = 25), and faculty members (n = 26) in art therapy programs in Korea. In addition two representatives of each participant group were interviewed. To design a questionnaire, a semistructured interview was conducted for six people in advance: two representatives from each participants’ group. The questionnaire was then designed based on the interview results and previous studies about art therapy for multicultural families. The questionnaire contained 34 questions for the married migrant women, 33 for the therapists, and 25 for the professors. Questionnaires were collected, coded and analyzed. Frequency analysis on sociodemographic variables, and samples of married migrant women, therapists, and professors were performed. The contents of the interviews were transcribed and analyzed based on grounded theory. Findings showed that married migrant women had child-related problems and conflicts with their family members as well as economic problems. Although they had lived many years in Korea, social support for them was meager. The number of Koreans who the migrant women socialized with was small. The married migrant women preferred art therapy over verbal counseling, but they experienced practical obstacles in time and transportation. The study’s findings suggest improvements for art therapy for multicultural families, such as providing programs at more accessible places, offering a visiting art therapy service, expanding voucher programs, providing family-oriented art therapy group programs, establishing educational plans to train capable therapists, and expanding multicultural family-related content in art therapy curricula of the graduate schools.

Number of Pages

149

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